Record-Breaking Year for State Immigration Legislation

By Nicole Moore

This was a record-breaking year for state immigration legislation, said Ann Morse, program director of NCSL's Immigrant Policy Project. In a typical year, state legislators introduce between 50 and 100 bills about immigration. In 2006, they introduced 570, she said at a session on trade policy during NCSL's Fall Forum here in San Antonio. Eighty-four of those bills were signed into law this year. That's more than double the number in 2005. Morse and the Immigrant Policy Project have been tracking this since 1992.

Typically, most of the state legislative immigration bills deal with public benefits, but this year, they touch on other areas like enforcement, education and identification.

Morse cited estimates that there are 12 million illegal immigrants in the country today, and she said that one of the reasons the number is so high is that it has become dangerous for illegal seasonal workers to go back and forth. These days, they send for their families and settle here.

Listen to her comments about state legislation on immigration (1 minute 30 seconds).

Morse also talked briefly about the history of efforts to regulate illegal immigration. She outlined current federal bills and said that while immigration won't be talked about in the first 100 days of the new Congress, it is expected to come up later in 2007.  Listen to this segment of Morse's talk (3 minutes, 40 seconds).

NCSL bloggers will be writing from Fall Forum all week.